1. Technical Field
This invention relates to a document processing apparatus and a document processing system which can execute various kinds of processing on document files, and a data structure of the document files.
2. Description of Related Art
In a conventional local environment in which a storage unit such as a hard disk device capable of storing document files is housed in or directly connected to a computer device, an extension available to application programs is attached to the file name of a document file so that the operating system OS of the computer device may recognize the type of the document by the extension, wherein the OS correlates an application program corresponding to a kind of the extension with a document file having that extension. For example, the OS provides a function of making a list of application programs that the user can execute on a selected document file and displaying an operational guidance according to the extension of the document file. This assures a preferable operability on document files.
A technology has been disclosed (for example by Japanese Non-Examined Patent Publication 2005-182595) to enable browsing of document files even when the computer device does not contain an appropriate application program by encapsulating digital information (contents itself) which is a document entity and a program which performs displaying and transferring on the digital information into a single document file.
Besides, a server and client environment has been provided wherein terminal devices connected to a network can respectively access document files which have been stored in a server on the network in advance. In this environment, the storage location of each document file to be accessed is identified by a UNC (Universal Naming Convention) name format (¥¥servername¥directoryname¥filename.extension) for easy accessibility. Further, since the extension in a UNC name format relates document types to application programs, the operability of this environment is similar to that of the local environment.
In addition to the above server and client environment, there has been a peer-to-peer environment which enables devices connected to the network to transfer data to and from each other directly without a server intervention. In this peer-to-peer environment, it is assumed that document files are scattered and stored in personal computers (PC) and multi-function devices in the network. Therefore, users in the peer-to-peer environment must recognize and remember in which devices the target document files are stored. This is bothersome and ready to cause memory slips. Further, when a document file is transferred from one device to another device, the user must remember its new location (a server name in the UNC format) once more. This is very inconvenient to the users.
To solve such problems, a technology has been disclosed (for example, by Japanese Non-Examined Patent Publication 2005-149220) which allocates an IP (Internet Protocol) address to each document file and uses the IP address to access the document file. By using the IP addresses, the users can access target document files without knowing devices which store target document files.
Using the technology that allocates an IP address to each document file can improve accessibility to document files that are dispersed and stored in personal computers PC and multi-function devices in the peer-to-peer environment. However, since the IP address does not use such an extension as is used in the UNC form, document files cannot be related to application programs. Therefore, the operability of document files is inferior.
Further, although extensions are used for relationship between document files and application programs, the extensions cannot bear so much information. Therefore, when types of processing executable on document files increase, the users cannot get appropriate and satisfactory information about operations of document files.
As described above, the technology disclosed by Japanese Non-Examined Patent Publication 2005-182595 encapsulates a document entity and its application program into a single document file. This technology can relate document entities to application programs. However, an object of this technology is to provide only specific functions for document entities of a single purpose as in a conference system on a network. Accordingly, when various kinds of processing and operation are to be executed on documents, the program part becomes huge and may be enormous. This may be inefficient in storing and transferring document data.
An object of this invention is to solve the above problems and provide a document file data structure which can provide users with information about various processing (and operations) which are executable on stored document files; and a document processing apparatus and a document processing system which handle document files of the data structure.
Another object of this invention is to provide a document file data structure which can provide users with information about processing (and operations) which are executable on stored document files, a document processing apparatus and a document processing system which handle document files of the data structure, while increasing the accessibility to document files which are scattered and stored in multiple devices in a peer-to-peer environment.